It's been almost a week and since then we had another orientation day on campus, where we were informed that we must register with the police and receive the NIE (número de identidad de extranjero) which I was planning on just doing without but oh well, that's going to be fun! At least I only have to do it once since it'll be my NIE forever and if/when I move back I'll be okay with having that. We also managed to buy the rechargable tram card which makes me feel like a proper resident of Alicante rather than one of the tourist peasants with a paper version. So cool. We sorted out wifi too! Friday was a very productive day. We were knackered by the end of it and were just chilling in the apartment in the evening when all of a sudden the doorbell goes and we were invited down into a street party! This weekend was 'las fiestas del raval roig' and basically our whole street came alive all weekend, which was amazing to see! We were outside from about 11pm-2am, eating authentic Spanish food and talking to various people (in Spanish) and getting a history lesson and finally watching these like street performers dressed like the devil (I think) with like fire and fireworks. It was amazing to see something so authentically Spanish in our first week and to be able to practice the language. I still struggled a bit but I am improving. My listening skills are improving the best I think, I can pretty much understand everything said to me but when it comes to replying I close up a bit. I need to remind myself it's only been a few days since I got here!
After about three hours sleep, on Saturday I spent the day with my family since it was their last day here so we went up el Castillo de Santa Barbara but it was too hot for me to take pictures, I was dying. Then we went on a bus to this little town called Santa Pola which was a bit shit but we did have some nice tapas, including Russian salad, patatas bravas, the potato tortilla cake thing, meatballs and sausages in cider. Very nice. Then in the evening Francesca came out with me and all the family for a Chinese meal and then came the horrible bit. I was so prepared for the goodbyes but they were still as awful as ever and I was in tears, first saying goodbye to my Nana and Granda at the hotel. It's ridiculous since I'll probably see them in a few weeks since they'll only be in Lanzarote! Then Mam and Howie walked me back home and I cried again when they left. What a softy. It's okay because they cried too muahahaha. As soon as they left I was kind of okay and got to watch more events from the street party thing. Saturday was 'la fiesta de la espuma' so there was basically a foam party in the street. Amazing to watch.
On Sunday I was planning on going to the beach but ended up feeling a bit sickly and decided inside to stay home and do all the rubbishy things I'd been putting off like tidying my room and doing washing. We also went to El Corte Ingles to buy a water filter (so we can stop buying bottles because that shit is heavy) and I got a fan too because it is so hot here and without air con, pretty much impossible to sleep. Sunday in the street was a little fancy dress parade thing which was so cute because all the bairns went first and they looked adorable and then the adults followed.
On Monday we finally had wifi installed! BEST DAY EVER. It's pretty quick too and downloaded an episode of Geordie Shore in one minute, I was buzzing. On Monday afternoon my new pal Sarah came over so we could help each other build the timetable (total total nightmare, step up your game, Europe) and we all had a panic over how hard it all is haha. Then we watched the final event of las fiestas de raval roig, a procession of la virgen del socorro (after whom our street is named after) and that was beautiful. My phone was finally unlocked (total mare, will write about that separately) so we went up to Plaza Mar to get a Spanish SIM except the vodafone shop had no nano-SIMs so that was annoying. Then we had McDonalds, where I had the McPollo. Different to England but still McDonalds so still nice.
Tuesday was our last day without classes so we decided to go into campus to have a little tour to find our buildings and stuff before looking like total freshers with a map when all the Spanish people were around. We still looked like that but whatever. We also filled in the form for the police station (when we finally go there) and paid what we had to for that, and photocopied our passports for that. So much paperwork ahhh. Then we came home and I finally did some food shopping where I actually knew I was staying here forever and had to buy real food to last me. I'm still not being very imaginative with my cooking because everything is different so I've only actually cooked two meals (multiple times) since being here, the first being chilli/garlic/soy sauce chicken and the second being pesto pasta and chicken. Then I tried to have an early night because...
Today my classes started at 8AM!!! What kind of sadistic bastard decides to start timetable at 8AM and have it finish at 9PM? Anyway I had to leave the house at 7 to get the tram to get there on time. My class was 'Literature and Cinema in English Speaking Countries', taught in English so luckily my brain doesn't need to be switched onto a different language at that time in the morning! It was quite a good class, just an introduction to what we'll be looking at and stuff. One of the texts and films we're doing is Shakespeare's (and Kenneth Branagh's) 'Much Ado About Nothing' which I am sooooo excited for. I then had a 5 hour break until my next class so decided to drop Sarah off at her next class at 10AM. I ended up sat outside the room with her for an hour because her lecturer decided not to show up. Excellent. We gave up after an hour and went to a Chinese market shop thing off campus to buy some stuff, I got a towel, a lighter for our gas hob, a tupperware box and a lollipop. Standard. We dropped off what Sarah had bought at her apartment in the university halls which are so nice. I think I would have liked staying there because it has a pool but you don't have a kitchen, only a canteen downstairs so that would have put a downer on it for me I think. We went back to campus for some burgers for lunch and then I bought a memory stick (while eating my lolly) and the man behind the till was taking the mick out of me for being a baby with my lolly haha. Glad I actually managed some banter in Spanish though! We chilled in the shade for a bit then Sarah left for a siesta and I went to meet Torrie ready for our 3PM class. After a bit of a room finding mishap we were there on the dot, along with quite a big crowd of people. So we waited. And waited. Once again, nobody showed up. Gotta love Spain. We decided to give up after half an hour and so I just came home!
Tonight I've not really done anything at all... watched Made in Chelsea, made pesto pasta, facetimed my brother, wrote this. Really living that wild Erasmus lifestyle. Tomorrow I have class 10-12 and then a meeting with my academic co-ordinator so that should be okay. I don't think I'm gonna do these recap post things anymore because they're just a bit boring since nothing is really happening!
Until next time, weirdos. Hasta luego.
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